Romney surrogates say GOP can win with women in November

3/29/12 2:21 PM EDT

Surrogates for Mitt Romney's campaign said on a conference call this afternoon that their candidate will ultimately have the advantage among women voters in November.

Asked about recent polling showing President Obama ahead with the female vote, former U.S. Treasurer Bay Buchanan said that's only because the GOP hasn't made its case yet with that demographic.

"Historically women have moved more to the Democratic candidate than the men have, and so that’s where the gap occurs," Buchanan said, citing entitlements as a major reason women tend to vote Democratic. "I think that this year’s going to be different ... what we need is jobs, someone who understands the economy, and I think women understand that more than anyone right now."

And the Democrats' focus on contraception, she said, is "absurd" and a "red herring" to distract voters from Obama's record on the economy.

"Democrats have to win the women vote big, so what the Democrats are doing is coming up with red herrings, hopefully to get the debate on something like contraception," she said.

Still, Wisconsin State Sen. Alberta Darling said the Republicans have a "perception problem," and that the party as a whole can work harder to bring women on board.

"The Republican Party needs to do a much beter job to include women, I think that's an issue that’s a challenge for us," she said, citing Ann Romney and her relationship with her husband as helpful to attracting female voters. "I think that [Ann Romney's] message of the economy and jobs really will resonate with women because women really are breadwinners also -- women make most of the decisions around their family’s checkbook and women are very concerned aobut the future for their children."

Polling does show that Romney trails Obama among women, a gap Democrats will work to widen through the rest of the campaign. But Romney is also losing conservative women to Rick Santorum, which I wrote about yesterday. His campaign's focus on women, both with this conference call and the "Women for Mitt" endorsements the campaign sent out today, shows that they're very aware of Romney's disadvantage with female voters.